Billboard leaves drivers guessing

Q: Hey Warrior, what's with all the billboards in the Lehigh Valley with just a screaming (or maybe yawning) face? They seem to be all over the place, including on the Turnpike, S. Fourth Street in Allentown and MacArthur Road in Whitehall.

Lori Vargo

Lower Saucon Township

A: You mean the screaming clown, Lori? Or wait. No, that's not the kind of painted red mouth sported by circus clowns. On second thought, maybe it's a vampire. That white face, red mouth combo screams ''Bela Lugosi'' to the Warrior.

As you might have guessed, the billboards represent what the advertising industry calls a ''teaser'' campaign, designed to snare our attention as much for what it doesn't say as for what it does.

It's intended to leave you guessing, Lori, and in doing so, to make sure you don't miss it. And it's worked, hasn't it?

The Warrior had been wondering what might be in store, too. Will they simply add printed copy on both sides of the screaming face, promoting whatever good or service is being sold? There's plenty of space for it.

Or maybe the logo of the sponsoring company will magically appear.

(Remember ''Chris and Chris,'' the male and female characters promoting a mystery bank last year on some of those same billboards, not to mention the best advertising venue of all, your local newspaper? The smilingly hip, smart pair turned out to be avid customers of Keystone Nazareth Bank and Trust: ''Let's bank!'')

Karen Goumakos, general manager of Adams Outdoor Advertising of the Lehigh Valley, declined to reveal the sponsor of the screaming-man ads, Lori.

''If people stay tuned, the answer is forthcoming in about a week and a half,'' Goumakos said.

''The intent is to get people talking'' about the ads, she said. ''One of the best outcomes is ... [when] you hear people saying, 'What is that about?'''

And the ambiguous design of the face seems to be working.

''Some people think it's a man, some think it's a woman,'' and there's disagreement over whether it's a scream of anguish or happiness, Goumakos said.

Whatever the expression, pleasure doesn't seem to be a part of it, by the Warrior's reckoning. Your idea of a yawn would be closer, Lori.

John C. Hayes, Goumakos' predecessor at Adams who left in December 2003 to help launch a sales and marketing consulting business, doesn't know the advertiser's identity, but he has a theory.

''My guess is, it's a self-promotion message'' for Adams itself, Hayes said. ''The graphics, I think, are trying to communicate that outdoor [advertising] is like a silent scream.

''There is no action'' on a billboard, as there is with television ads, Hayes said, ''but [the billboard] does scream at you. It is kind of a silent scream.''

Alan Zerbe, creative director at Stiegler Wells Brunswick and Roth in Bethlehem, which created the ''Chris and Chris'' ads, also theorized  independent of Hayes  that the screaming face will end up saying ''Nothing Screams Like Outdoor'' advertising.

But if it's not Adams' own campaign, Zerbe, who like the Warrior also thought at one point that the face might resemble that of a clown, guessed that Dorney Park might be the client.

The Warrior would be interested to know what readers think it might be.

But don't spend so much time looking at the screaming face that you take your eyes off the road too long. Safety first, fellow road warriors.

Road Warrior appears Fridays. E-mail questions about transportation in the Lehigh Valley and beyond to hartzell@mcall.com (please include your name, phone number and where you live). Or, write to Road Warrior, The Morning Call, 101 N. Sixth St., Allentown, 18101-1480.